Bostrom misses out as Bayliss takes pole

Ben Bostrom staged an amazing recovery to come within a tenth of a second of taking pole in Saturday’s Superpole at Valencia. But it was reigning world champion Troy Bayliss who came out No1.

Baylisss stamped his authority with a stunning lap of 1:34.814s. But Bostrom’s achievement seems more remarkable because he almost launched himself on one of the earliest turns of his flying lap. He notched a time of 1.34.959.

2000 champion Colin Edwards took his SP-2 to third spot while Noriyuki Haga completes the front row for Sunday’s opening WSB races after riding his RSV to 1:35.015s.

Hodgson’s fastest time of the weekend was enough to give him fifth place on the grid. The second row is completed by: 6 Borja, 7. Izutsu, 8.Pedercini.

Ruben Xaus, who started the day on provisional pole, tumbled down the rankings to just ninth quickest. He had a made a trip into the gravel in free practice earlier in the afternoon/. Chili was 10th on his Ducati while Chris Walker will be reasonably pleased with his 11th place (and third row of the grid) scored while battling his Bell’s Palsy condition.

Lavilla was 12th fastest with James Toseland down in 13th after having a big crash in free practice. He had to be patched up to ride and had taken quite a blow to his head. That he rode at all in Superpole says much for his resilience.

14th was Martin 15th Borciani and 16th, Foti